Tuesday, 5 March 2024

Kindergarten funding

Ryan BATCHELOR (Southern Metropolitan) (13:38): I recently visited two recipients of the bush kinder grants program in Southern Metro: Olympic Avenue Kindergarten in Cheltenham, which has been a very important and lovely part of the early childhood education and kindergarten scene in the local community since 1958, and Hunt Community Child Care and Kindergarten, which has a very modest street frontage in Brighton but backs into an absolute oasis of a garden out the back. Both kindergartens have recently received $6000 to establish nature programs where children can regularly get outdoors as part of the bush kinder program.

As parents we know that kids love getting covered in dirt, and it is actually really good for them, developmentally, being out in nature. They can learn and play with natural materials. It is a very important part of their development. That is why the bush kinder grants program is providing $3.6 million over four years and 150 grants to kindergartens this year to undertake educational sessions in the outdoors. I want to thank Sue, Serena and Bek from Hunt community centre and Denise from Olympic Avenue for having me at their centres and showing me how they plan to use the grants to benefit learning within their kindergartens. It was a great chance to spend some time talking to them more broadly about investments the government is making in early education across the state.